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[Zecks]

but what comes to ways of storytelling in games, who else agrees with me that cutscenes are constantly being bashed more because of how they're integrated than the general quality of them

[AndrewFM]

People have varying levels of emotion, so there's no real scale on what will make a person cry. Something that will make one person cry might not even phase someone else.

However, on the topic of "growing attachments to characters", Team ICO's games tend to use that as a primary theme. You might want to check those out if you haven't already... in my opinion, ICO does a particularly good job at this.

[antymattar]

What I think about JRPG's like FF is that they ill themselves with the characters in a sort of way.
EDIT: Didn't see you there AndrewFm. Yes, If ico made a reaally good rpg then you could actually get the result(allas they have not).

[Paint by Numbers]

@ Paint by Numbers: I am not eight.
@ Theophilus again: About your view: That was a joke 

Oh, sorry. Sometimes it's hard to tell one's age when they make jokes like

Your tastes are not as mine, so I do not respect you. I am a hard man and will prove it by ending this with an emoticon.

[antymattar]

Yeah. Emoticons will always enhance your message

[Theophilus]

I feel that games make me more emotional than movies is because I'm playing as the characters. It's a role for me to take on; I become them. In a movie, I watch guys do stuff.

[antymattar]

Hmm... I never thought about myself being the char... No wait! I feel that way but I don't think about it when I play. I guess that could play a major role too. 

[moi]

I would like to bitchslap anyone who played FFVII.

[antymattar]

 

When I said that I thought that about cavestory. 

[AndrewFM]

Yes, If ico made a reaally good rpg then you could actually get the result

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

[antymattar]

... Sorry, I thought you were talking about the company that made ico(I thinks it's also called ico. will have to check). Anyways...

Anyway, shadow of the collosus is great but it's story is just... strange. I cant say anything other than that. sorry.

[tsameti]

I would like to bitchslap anyone who says FF7

Come on, man. I was twelve years old, couldn't help it. But does that even count? The game didn't stir up your cry balls to leak, it was the music and an FMV.

I flat out don't know too many Western developers interested in telling stories of dramatic tragedy, and I don't really know pure game mechanics lend themselves well to plucking at your heartstrings.


Ubisoft tried to pull it off in the new PoP, and you know, they got admirably close to it. Shame about drama, an inch from the mark is as good as a mile. I don't blame them that it fell flat. The Fable 2 dog came close, but you never got hit with the sense of finality you needed to really feel bad about it.

So, maybe there's a lot of unexplored territory. Get on top of it, indies!

[Mipe]

This thread almost made me cry.

[Pineapple]

Fire Emblem 7 (Blazing Sword) (GBA) made me cry when I played it several years ago, and it still makes my eyes water when I more recently pick it up again. It's because it attaches you so completely to the characters that the game's events tug relentlessly at your emotional strings.

I dare you to play that game without experiencing any emotional effect.

I also read somewhere that Jason's Passage made a well-know game designer cry.

Amnesia is horrifying.

The problem is that far too many games focus on fun, time-wasting, or just addiction. There are remarkably few that attempt to play with emotions, but it's absurd to say that these game's don't exist.

[Supermini_man]

We ❤ Katamari and Super Mario Galaxy were the only games that made me cry so far. Although there are games that were close to do it.

[SundownKid]

Disgaea made me cry.

The end of Disgaea is great! MANLY TEARS Also, certain parts of Lost Odyssey are emotional. But, I have noticed that the most emotional moments for me are cutscenes, so it's not much different to how a movie makes you emotional. I was simply surprised at Curly's death in Cave Story because the game had a bare-bones story. In my opinion a game needs a strong story and has to show detailed character interaction to merit strong emotion, regular gameplay just doesn't cut it for me at this point. That's why Western RPGs are weaker at it, since they put the focus on gameplay being customized at the expense of a more detailed story.

[dspencer]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Mother 3! I mean, serisly, the game came with a tagline: "No crying till the end." There were a number of reasons it was so effective -instead of traveling from town to town, you stayed in the same place, and interacted with the same characters over and over again. The conflicts weren't just black and white, but they were complicated. Lastly, it had situations that you could empathize with. I didn't cry in Chrono Trigger, or FFVII - why would I? The characters who had bad things happen to them were set up basically "X is nice. X helps you. Something big and bad happens to X". There was no question that the character here is GOOD and the thing that happened to them is BAD. In mother 3, it wasn't some giant awful thing happening (Well, yeah, that happened) - but small things would happen to the characters. Someone you had known for the whole game joins the bad guys army, because he doesn't realize that they are the bad guys. He thinks he's going to go do some great things. It's surpirsing and upsetting when you talk to a soldier and find out its actually your FRIEND, on the opposite team, talking about how there are some trouble makers that he is hoping to deal with (guess what - he's talking about you. but he doesn't know that).

Have you ever had been in the situation where your friend is praying for the magic lifestream to come save the world but then gets killed so that someone can steal her powerful materia? Neither have I.
Have you ever looked on as someone does something selfdestructive, or hurtful to others, with the best of intentions? Seen someone grow up with absent parents? Make games with real issues that people can relate to, in order to get them emotionally invested. Just like in real life, if you have relationships with people, then they matter; if they are just another person, another number, humans can be less sympathetic than seems possible.

[Mipe]

Buncha wailing sissies.





Glad I'm not the only one.

[Player 3]

Blah blah blah MOTHER 3 blah blah blah.

Why is there always a bandwagon for M3 being a sad game? Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't cry from media.

Buncha wailing sissies.

[DavidCaruso]

Blah blah blah MOTHER 3 blah blah blah.

Why is there always a bandwagon for M3 being a sad game? Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't cry from media.

It's not nearly as sad as a lot of movies or novels, but it is a lot more sad than most videogames (though it did have a happy ending, kind of), and I don't think that would have worked as well in any format other than a game. I didn't personally cry (I too have never cried at a videogame, or even movie that I can remember), but I can understand those who did. (In addition to the narrative, it's also great mechanics-wise and essentially fat-free, especially for a JRPG...unlike Earthbound, which for all its atmosphere and charm is a god damn chore to play.)